Two Sides of a Story
by ginnys01
Summary: Instead of Killing Harry, Voldemort took in Harry and raised him instead.


AN: one shot written for The Houses Competition round 4

House: Badgers

Class Subject: Transfiguration

Story Category: Drabble

Prompt: [Song Prompt] Poor Unfortunate Souls from The Little Mermaid

Word count: 1121

Thanks to my fellow Badgers team members DarylDixon'sgirl1985 for beta-ing.

Set in an AU where Voldemort didn't try to kill Harry, but adopted and raised him instead. Due to the AU, it's OOC for Harry, Voldemort and Bellatrix.

* * *

"Serpent's Lair."

Harry felt himself spinning around and just at the point where he thought he might be sick, the spinning stopped. Looking around, he had never before felt so glad to be back home.

"Moddy!"

A second later a House-elf stood in the room. "What can Moddy do for master Potter?" He asked.

"Empty my school trunk. I want everything clean in my wardrobe when I return." Harry said, sweeping towards the door. It was only the magic of the house, that stopped the door closing with a bang; the relieved sigh from the elf within was not heard.

Those who didn't know Harry would have thought that he knew exactly where he was going; those who knew him could tell that there was a slight hesitation. His walk was slightly slower than usual, and his mind was far away. Not far enough that you could attack him and survive, but far enough that if he didn't decide soon where to go, he would probably end up where he didn't want to.

Nearing the end of the corridor he flashed his eyes to the left before turning right and continuing. He definitely didn't want his father's study yet. He was both too hungry and too irritated. The journey home on the train had been a long one, and the term at school had been even longer. Harry couldn't believe the level of study at Hogwarts. When his father and aunt had told him, he was far beyond his years in study, he didn't believe them; after all, he wasn't learning anything difficult. It only took him a week to realise that his father and aunt had been right.

When the headmaster had started to bother him, wanting to know where he had been the past 10 years, Harry had started to regret wanting to go to Hogwarts. The headmaster had tried breaking in his mind and it had only been the occlumency lessons received from his aunt that kept the headmaster out.

The badgering about where he had been was followed by lessons, by his fellow students, on why he was famous. After People finished telling him about how amazing he was for not dying, they started to teach him about Voldemort. Those had lasted up until he got off the Hogwarts Express. As if Harry didn't know about Voldemort? How could he not? Voldemort was after all the person he called 'Father'. It was the only reason Harry had stayed out of the conversations and debates, he knew that if he said something, he might give away where they lived.

Not telling people about where they lived was one of the two conditions that his father had given for him to be allowed to study at Hogwarts. The other had been to return at Christmas, which the headmaster had made nearly impossible.

Ever since the sign-up sheet for Christmas break had appeared Dumbledore had been trying to convince Harry to stay at Hogwarts. In fact, Harry was thinking of not returning after Christmas due to how persistent Dumbledore had been. But before he made any final decisions, he had to talk to his father and aunt. He had to know the truth. To him, they were strict but fair guardians. People who loved him, but to the rest of the world they were evil and murderers.

There was just one thing to do before speaking to them; he had to clear his mind, vent his anger. There was only one place in the house where he could do that. The training room.

*hphphp*

"Reducto!"

As the spell hit the training dummy, the lights came back on to full blast and applause sounded behind him.

"You must have been in a right mood, doing the night-time training."

Turning around Harry saw both his father and his aunt standing there. "Father. Aunt Bella." Giving them a nod, he turned around again and was about to start a new simulation when his father stopped him.

"Speak, Harry. Why didn't you come to my study when you got back?"

At first, Harry hesitated. What was he supposed to say? How could he explain what everyone at school had said without accusing the only family he had ever known of being evil? How could he ask for an explanation without sounding as if he believed the things he had heard? When he had left for Hogwarts, Aunt Bella had told him that he would hear bad, no, awful things about them. But she had also told him to remember that there were always two sides to a story.

Before long, the whole story came out, from how his term went from the moment he stepped onto the train, to the moment he stepped off the train, after returning from Hogwarts. Including the number of tracking spells he had to remove, before being able to portkey home.

For the first time since Harry had learned occlumency, he let his shield down. He gave his father and aunt full access to his mind, thoughts and feelings. He had to hope that they would understand and explain. In the end, sheer exhaustion, both physical and mental, took over and Harry crashed. The look of desperation had slowly turned into tears of helplessness, followed by him falling asleep in his father's arms.

*hphphp*

When Harry woke up, he was lying in his own bed. A small smile appeared on his face, as he remembered that he was back home. There was nothing above waking up and knowing that you were in the place where you belonged.

"Harry?"

Harry opened his eyes, his father was sitting next to his bed, looking down at him with worry.

"Son, I tried to protect you, but now is the time that I can't anymore. I guess I realised you would hear stories when you left for Hogwarts, but I never guessed it would be this bad for you.

"You remember that Bella told you there are always two sides to a story? Well, this is one of those cases where it's definitely true."

"But father, they said, you even tortured and killed those on your own side." Harry interrupted. His father nodded.

"Yes, I did. When a person comes to me, we make a deal. I give them something they want, but they have to pay a price. If they don't keep to their side of the deal, they face consequences. In some cases that was killing. Occasionally killing is the only way to keep others safe."

The conversation lasted until Bella came up to see why they weren't at breakfast, but by then Harry was convinced. If people don't keep to their side of the deal, they should accept the consequences.


End file.
